Clothes-pounder



r L. N. MARTIN. CLOTHES POUNDER.

No. 401,671. Patented Apr. 16, 1889.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()EEIcE.

LEWIS N. MARTIN, OF LEAVENWVORTI-I, KANSAS.

CLOTH ES-POUNDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,571, dated April 16, 1889.

Application filed June 6 1888. Serial No. 276,192. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LEWIS N. MARTIN, of Leavenworth, Kansas, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Clothes- Pounders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and in which- FigureI is a side View with portions broken away. Fig. II is a section taken on line H II, Fig. III, showing the inside arrangement. Fig. III is a bottom view.

My invention relates to a clothes-pounder for cleansing clothes; and my invention consists in features of novelty hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claim.

1 represents a base or casing, such as is ordinarily used in clothes-pounders. The casing is provided at its apex with a socket, 2, closed at its lower end to receive a handle, 3. At a short distance below the apex there are open-ended tubes 4 extending through the sides of the casing.

Secured to the sides of the casing are hoods 5, which are placed over the .tubes at, and which are open at their lower ends, 0, the purpose of which is to cover the ends of the tubes.

7 represents a disk located within, but not attached to the casing 1, and which does not extend as far down as the casing. It is held in position by being secured to the bottom of the socket 2 and to the tubes 4. These tubes 4 are secured at their upper ends to the inside of the casing and convey the air (which passes in through the openings 6 of the hoods 5) down to the chamber beneath the disk 7, thus destroying a vacuum when the plunger is raised. The lower ends of the tubes extend a shortdistance below the disk and have valves 9 secured to them. Beneath the valves 9 is a spider or brace, 10, secured to the in side of the casing, there being an arm directly beneath each one of the valves 9, but space enough between the arms and the valves to allow the latter-to open far enough to permit the passage of air and any water that may enter the tubes, but not enough to allow them to double backward and become inoperative. The disk 7, being detached from the sides of the casing, produces more vacuum, and the valves being hinged to the lower ends of the tubes prevent exhaust when the plunger is forced down, and when the plunger is raised the valves drop, and thus destroy all suction, by which means the labor of operating is greatly reduced. Three openings and tubes have been shown and described, but I do not confine myself to that number.

At 11 I have shown a spring located beneath the handle in the hollow stem of the body, which forms a cushioning device, so that when the body of the pounder strikes the clothes and water it yields and avoids to a great extent the splashing of the water.

I claim as my invention In a clothes-pounder, the combination of the casing having a handle, hoods attached to the outside of the casing, tubes secured to the casing beneath the hoods, valves at the lower ends of the tubes, disks located within the casing and supported by the tubes, said disk having an airspace surrounding it between its edge and the inner side of the casing, and the spider or valve support, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

LEWIS N. MARTIN.

In presence of- I. R. PAUL, A. A. MULLINS. 

